Investors Buy Large Volume of Call Options on Mosaic (NYSE:MOS)

The Mosaic Company (NYSE:MOS) was the target of some unusual options trading on Friday. Stock traders purchased 46,424 call options on the stock. This is an increase of approximately 189% compared to the typical volume of 16,057 call options.

Wall Street Analyst Weigh In

Several equities analysts recently commented on the stock. BNP Paribas Exane dropped their price objective on Mosaic from $43.00 to $35.00 and set an “outperform” rating for the company in a report on Monday, November 24th. Weiss Ratings cut shares of Mosaic from a “hold (c-)” rating to a “sell (d+)” rating in a research report on Monday, March 2nd. Barclays reissued an “equal weight” rating and set a $31.00 price objective on shares of Mosaic in a report on Tuesday, March 3rd. Wall Street Zen cut Mosaic from a “hold” rating to a “sell” rating in a research report on Saturday, March 7th. Finally, Royal Bank Of Canada decreased their price objective on Mosaic from $29.00 to $28.00 and set a “sector perform” rating for the company in a research note on Thursday, February 26th. Five investment analysts have rated the stock with a Buy rating, eleven have issued a Hold rating and two have issued a Sell rating to the stock. According to data from MarketBeat, the company has a consensus rating of “Hold” and an average price target of $30.75.

Institutional Investors Weigh In On Mosaic

Several institutional investors have recently added to or reduced their stakes in MOS. Vanguard Group Inc. lifted its stake in shares of Mosaic by 1.2% during the fourth quarter. Vanguard Group Inc. now owns 39,123,171 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $942,477,000 after buying an additional 461,524 shares during the period. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP increased its stake in shares of Mosaic by 6.6% during the 4th quarter. Dimensional Fund Advisors LP now owns 13,407,136 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $322,979,000 after acquiring an additional 830,985 shares during the last quarter. State Street Corp raised its stake in shares of Mosaic by 1.9% during the fourth quarter. State Street Corp now owns 13,174,708 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $317,379,000 after purchasing an additional 240,146 shares during the period. Invesco Ltd. boosted its position in Mosaic by 28.9% in the 4th quarter. Invesco Ltd. now owns 11,840,398 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $285,235,000 after buying an additional 2,653,969 shares during the last quarter. Finally, Geode Capital Management LLC grew its stake in shares of Mosaic by 0.8% during the fourth quarter. Geode Capital Management LLC now owns 8,479,395 shares of the basic materials company’s stock valued at $203,916,000 after acquiring an additional 63,822 shares in the last quarter. Hedge funds and other institutional investors own 77.54% of the company’s stock.

Mosaic Stock Performance

Shares of NYSE MOS traded down $1.67 during midday trading on Friday, reaching $24.53. 8,176,820 shares of the stock were exchanged, compared to its average volume of 8,491,319. The company has a quick ratio of 0.47, a current ratio of 1.32 and a debt-to-equity ratio of 0.35. Mosaic has a twelve month low of $22.36 and a twelve month high of $38.23. The firm has a market cap of $7.78 billion, a price-to-earnings ratio of 14.50, a PEG ratio of 1.64 and a beta of 0.95. The firm has a 50-day simple moving average of $28.06 and a two-hundred day simple moving average of $28.25.

Mosaic (NYSE:MOS) last released its earnings results on Tuesday, February 24th. The basic materials company reported $0.22 earnings per share (EPS) for the quarter, missing analysts’ consensus estimates of $0.48 by ($0.26). Mosaic had a return on equity of 5.80% and a net margin of 4.49%.The business had revenue of $2.97 billion for the quarter, compared to analysts’ expectations of $3.02 billion. During the same period in the previous year, the company earned $0.45 EPS. Mosaic’s quarterly revenue was up 5.6% compared to the same quarter last year. As a group, analysts anticipate that Mosaic will post 2.04 EPS for the current fiscal year.

Mosaic Announces Dividend

The firm also recently disclosed a quarterly dividend, which will be paid on Tuesday, June 2nd. Stockholders of record on Thursday, May 21st will be paid a $0.22 dividend. The ex-dividend date of this dividend is Thursday, May 21st. This represents a $0.88 annualized dividend and a dividend yield of 3.6%. Mosaic’s dividend payout ratio (DPR) is presently 52.07%.

About Mosaic

Mosaic Co is one of the world’s leading producers and marketers of concentrated phosphate and potash crop nutrients. The company’s primary business activities center on the extraction, processing and distribution of phosphate rock, phosphate-based fertilizers and potash products. These core nutrients are essential components in modern agriculture, supporting crop yields and soil health across a range of farming applications.

In its phosphate segment, Mosaic operates mining and production facilities that convert phosphate rock into concentrated phosphates, finished phosphate fertilizers and feed phosphates for animal nutrition.